Jamaican sprint king Usain bade a fitting farewell to the London Olympics on Saturday night by leading his country to yet more success with a world record in the 4x100m relay.

Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games bosses can now only pray Bolt commits to athletics as he openly ponders his participation at Rio 2016.

IOC president Jacques Rogge has questioned Bolt’s status as a sporting legend and reckons Sir Steve Redgrave and Ben Ainslie are more deserving of Olympic acclaim for their longevity in rowing and sailing.

Not for the first time, an administrator in a suit has failed to put his finger on the pulse of public consciousness to find it racing in support of the best and most charismatic sportsman on the planet.

No one symbolised the humour and brilliance of these Games better than Bolt, who charmed officials, rivals, the media and public alike with his astonishing feats of sprinting endeavour and humorous good grace.

He did more than move into fourth place in Olympic athletics medal history with his three golds in London, adding to the three he won in Beijing.

He has also cleaned up the image of the Games’ blue riband 100m event, which has been rocked by one drugs scandal after another in recent years.

Usain Bolt uses a photographers camera to take pictures of his team-mates

Until Bolt emerged, its reputation was as tarnished as the gold claimed by Ben Johnson in Seoul before it was rightly ripped away by the IOC.

During Bolt’s press conference following his sensational victory in the 200m last Thursday night, an American reporter began to ask him a question about the Jamaican track team on the issue of doping.

Tongue tied, the reporter mistakenly referred to it as “the Jamaican drug team”. Around 300 of us gasped audibly before the reporter corrected himself and asked if the public could believe the Jamaicans were clean.

For the only time that night, apart from the first 190 metres of the race itself, Bolt got serious. He said: “Without a doubt.” Then, gesturing to his team-mates Yohan Blake and Warren Weir, who captured silver and bronze, added: “These guys train hard.”

Bolt has won the affections of the public with his comedy shows before and after races. He has pampered his hair, given a royal wave to the cameras, snatched a Nikon from a photographer and shot off a few images of his own, winked, blown kisses, smiled and enchanted in equal measure.

He has also struck his trademark pose, firing off invisible arrows that must land like daggers in the soul of rivals who believe he can one day be beaten when it really matters.

Remarkably, Bolt came to the Games under pressure, with nagging doubts about his fitness amid concerns for his injured back and defeats to Blake in the 100m and 200m at the Jamaican trials still fresh in the mind.

The greats can deliver on the biggest stages and Bolt was back to his peerless best when he captured the 100m in 9.63 seconds, smashing his own Olympic record of 9.69 seconds and just 0.05 seconds off the world record he set at the 2009 world championships in Berlin.

Blake was second and Justin Gatlin of the USA took the bronze.

Bolt said: “I knew it was going to be like this. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind it was going to be like this.”

How could we have doubted him? He followed it up with gold in the 200m in a time of 19.19 seconds, with Blake again in silver and Weir completing a Jamaican one-two-three.

Bolt became the only man in history to successfully defend his Olympic 100m and 200m titles and he went into verbal overdrive afterwards but, again, few were accusing him of hyperbole.

He said: “Winning gold is what I came to do. I’m now a legend. I’m the greatest athlete to live. It’s wonderful. I have nothing left to prove. I’ve showed the world I’m the best and, right now, I just want to enjoy myself. This is my moment. I’ll never forget this.”

Neither would the rest of the planet as Bolt set another world record, this time in social media. He has 1.3million Twitter followers and 80,000 tweets a minute flew around earth revelling in his achievement in the immediate aftermath of his double defence.

Bolt completed his encore on Saturday evening, anchoring the Jamaican relay sprint team to a 36.84 seconds time as they became the first team to defend their Olympic relay title since the USA in 1976. For good measure, it was the third time they had broken the 4x100m world record.

Bolt turns 26 on August 21 and it’s on that day in 2016 the 100m sprint final will be held in Rio, but it remains to be seen if he will be part of it.

He has spoken about his desire to move into team sports. He is also well aware of the rapid progress being made by Blake, still just 22. Genuine legends will never allow their status as untouchables to be compromised.

Unlike rowers and sailors such as Redgrave and Ainslie, the required muscle mass Bolt needs to compete at the highest level will decline more quickly, which makes his achievement of dominating at two Games all the more remarkable, never mind three.

Bolt said: “I’ve thought about Rio but it’s going to be hard because Yohan is running well and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot more cats coming up to run.